Session of 2025
SENATE BILL No. 85
By Committee on Government Efficiency
1-28
AN ACT concerning public assistance; relating to the secretary for
children and families; directing the secretary to enter into agreements
with state agencies for the continuous review and comparison of data
for public assistance eligibility; requiring the secretary to review
federal sources to verify such eligibility.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
Section 1. (a) To verify eligibility for the food assistance program
pursuant to K.S.A. 39-709, and amendments thereto, the secretary for
children and families shall enter into data-matching agreements with state
agencies to compare data related to households enrolled in food assistance
and other state data sets. The secretary shall receive and review
information concerning individuals or households enrolled in food
assistance that indicates a change in circumstances that may affect
eligibility for the program on at least a:
(1) Monthly basis, from the office of vital statistics, including, but not
limited to, death records;
(2) quarterly basis, from the department of labor, including, but not
limited to, changes in employment or wages;
(3) monthly basis, including, but not limited to, potential changes in
residency as identified by out-of-state electronic benefit transfer
transactions;
(4) quarterly basis, from the department of revenue, including, but not
limited to, potential changes in income, wages or residency as identified
by tax records;
(5) monthly basis, from the department of corrections, including, but
not limited to, incarceration status;
(6) semi-monthly basis, from the department of labor, including, but
not limited to, potential changes in employment, income or assets; and
(7) monthly basis, from the Kansas lottery and the Kansas racing and
gaming commission, to identify households with lottery or gambling
winnings of $3,000 or greater and, to the extent permissible under federal
law, deem this data verified upon receipt, and if the data is not verified
upon receipt, the department shall make referrals for further investigation
to identify households with winnings equal to or greater than the resource
limit for elderly or disabled households as defined in 7 C.F.R. § 273.8(b).
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(b) On at least a monthly basis, to assess continued eligibility and act
on findings, the secretary for children and families shall review and act on
the following data from federal sources:
(1) Earned income information, death records, incarceration records,
supplemental security income information, beneficiary records, earnings
information and pension information maintained by the United States
social security administration;
(2) income and employment information maintained in the national
directory of new hires and child support enforcement data maintained by
the United States department of health and human services;
(3) payment and earnings information maintained by the United
States department of housing and urban development; and
(4) fleeing felon information maintained by the United States federal
bureau of investigation.
(c) On at least a quarterly basis, the secretary shall make available to
the public on the Kansas department for children and families' website data
from findings of noncompliance and fraud investigations in food
assistance for the following aggregate, nonconfidential and non-personally
identifying information:
(1) Number of households investigated for intentional program
violations or fraud;
(2) total number of households referred to the attorney general's
office for prosecution;
(3) improper payments and expenditures;
(4) moneys recovered;
(5) data concerning improper payments and ineligible recipients as a
percentage of those investigated and reviewed; and
(6) amount of funds expended by electronic benefit card transactions
in each state outside of Kansas.
Sec. 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
publication in the statute book.
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